KAREN & THE CONSTABLES

Last weekend I took the girls to a charity shopping evening at The Body Shop in Aberdeen to raise funds for Charlie House. Charlie House is fantastic charity based in the North-East of Scotland which raises funds to support children with disabilities and life-limiting illnesses and their families.

The invitation landed at the perfect time. I’ve started to get back into The Body Shop products now that they are back to being properly cruelty-free (from 2006-2017 it was owned by L’Oreal, a non-cruelty-free brand), and I needed to top up my supplies and see what else I’d been missing.

My shopping list read:

• Body Yogurt
• Banana Shampoo & Conditioner
• Peppermint Foot Spray
• Find out about their foundation range

I’ve been on a mission recently to replace all non-cruelty-free products with cruelty-free alternatives (not just throwing away as that’s wasteful, but replacing when empty), and I’ve been using their Mango Body Yogurt which I love. The texture is light and and you can apply it quickly and easily after a shower for quick-drying moisture. Their Christmas range has just started to come in and I found a Christmas gift set which had two body yogurts for £15 I think it was, so that saved some money.

I’ve also started using the banana haircare range after a friend suggested it for my fine hair. It smells amazing, cleans brilliantly, and leaves my hair feeling soft and light. Unfortunately I still need to wash my hair daily but it’s not as greasy as it was previously. I also use a shampoo bar but I haven’t found an ideal range which reduces waste and cleans well so I go between both until I find that perfect product! I also only recently found out that The Body Shop collects your empty containers and recycles them for you as most kerbside collections won’t. With every 5 items you return you also get £5 to spend if you’re a member of their Love Your Body Club loyalty scheme. I spotted a banana set in the Christmas range which had a shampoo, conditioner and monkey hair wrap for £15, so that was that box ticked!

The Peppermint Foot Spray was an absolute saviour when I was pregnant. My hot, swollen feet felt instantly better with a spritz of this and I’ve been using it ever since.

The foundation I was using most recently was from Primark, and don’t get me wrong, their range is great (and cruelty-free), but I found that my rosacea started to show through halfway through the day thanks to my oily skin. In search of more coverage and a primer, I had a chat with a member of the team. She suggested applying Instablur first to mattify my skin and even my tone, then Matte Clay Skin Clarifying Foundation which gives a lightweight, breathable, full-coverage and mattifying finish but also contains tea tree to keep my skin clear.

Of course I couldn’t just stick to my list, I bought another little Christmas gift set with face masks and a reindeer headband for £5, a bunny headband for £4 and a Coco Calming Face Mist for £6 for a wee after gym spritz! For spending over £25 I got a free shower gel and headscarf, and as part of the ticket price I got a wee goody bag with samples and a hand lotion. Even the girls got goody bags with sweets and bath bombs, which they love! So all in all we did really well and the event, run by a local business, raised over £300 for Charlie House.